Bike Check: What the Supercross Pros Pedal

posted by Saris Mercanti - February 4, 2014 - 4pm EST

Two weekends ago, we braved the fumes of high octane race fuel to take a look at what bikes the Supercross pros had lined up in the pits. While most of the bikes on display were for warming up, many racers are also passionate cyclists. The vast majority of SX Pros have some background in BMX and notable riders like Cole Seely and Ryan Villapoto can regularly be seen on training rides.

So brap past the break for some mx and bike p0rn…

Ryan Villopoto

We’ll start our tour of the pits at the booth with the bike wearing the number one plate.

Sitting dead center in the pit area where these two mean green scooters, but buried a little further to the side…

Was this beauty – RV1′s Specialized Venge. It’s set up on rollers for prelap warm up spins, so ignore the dorky flat pedals that have been mounted up.

When Ryan isn’t riding his motorcycle, he spends allot of time on his bike. His trainer, the legendary Aldon Baker, has trained many of the sports greatest athletes and was a pro mountain biker racer in a former life.

James Stewart

While Bubba’s race bike was being prepped, we took a look past his Suzuki to see what was sitting on the trainer.His Giant TCR was equipped with a full Ultegra gruppo and finished off with Giant branded components.

Chad ReedAfter a 22 race dry spell, Chad Reed was back on the podium with a win at A2 a few weeks ago.

Then Chad came back last weekend and pulled away from the pack for another win! Not bad for a guy who’s thirty one going on thirty two. That comeback story means more media attention and an upgraded bike. This entry level Stumpjumper build with Shimano SLX groupset, Renthal components (also one of his MX sponsers), and aluminum tid bits was sitting in the pits at Oakland.

For A3, Specialized, Shimano, and Fox, came together to present him with this Epic hi-viz yellow bike. Picture shamelessly stolen from Specialized Global PR Manager Sean Estes’s Instagram feed.

Just for posterity sake, here’s a picture of Chad’s actual race bike in the middle of it’s prerace tear down.

Eli Tomac

Tomac is a name that’s already made it’s mark in the cycling world, but now John’s son is trying to create his own legacy in the motorcycle arena. A crash at the first race of the season left him unable to race the first few rounds, but we still got a look at his toys.Next to the fleet of candy red Honda’s was this hot number from Specialized.

Mike Alessi

Mr. Holeshot had several race bikes on display, but just over the black barrier was his training bike.An aluminum Giant Defy with entry level Shimano components and some Giant branded bits.

Trey Canard

Trey Canard and the Muscle Milk Crew are also sponsored by Specialized.

So we weren’t surprised to see this beautiful Stumpy displayed front and center.

JGR Yamaha (Justin Brayton, Josh Grant)

The Yamaha team is lucky to not only be riding this years fully redesigned YZ450, but these two beautiful bikes…

We actually had to wait a few minutes to get close enough for this shot because a group of young boys where drooling over these bikes. It’s amazing to be at a supercross race venue and hear ten year olds arguing over whether the Pike or Float 34 is a better fork!

Comments

Oof, and that’s with the rear of the bike cranked up in the trainer as well…

pornitswhatlwouldratherbmaking - 02/04/14 - 5:44pm

cool story!

gabe - 02/04/14 - 6:01pm

One typo: Chad Reed is 31..going on 32. Which is funny enough is the motocross equivalent of 45, Haha!

Saris Mercanti - 02/04/14 - 6:13pm

@Gabe

Fixed! I knew I shouldn’t have relied on my memory.

Ted - 02/04/14 - 6:25pm

A lot of crossover, Andrew Short doesn’t travel with but has a sweet Custom Parlee Z-Zero, Enve, DA 11 and does a ton of gravel stuff on his CX bike in Texas, as you could guess he’s nails on an MTB too. Jason Anderson just signed on with Cannondale, and Davi Milsaps was on a Giant last year. Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Dungey are both part of the Trek Stable.

gabe - 02/04/14 - 6:40pm

@Saris…No problem, I almost typed in my reply that he was 30! I received my SW Epic frameset in late December and saw they added the neon option late last month..Dammit I love that colorway! So pumped he took home the W Sunday.

Padrote - 02/04/14 - 7:25pm

well the merckx is cool I guess?

satisFACTORYrider - 02/04/14 - 8:27pm

Gotta love moto

Braaaponmtb - 02/04/14 - 10:32pm

Eli Tomac rides Trek

bin judgin - 02/05/14 - 1:34am

This has nothing to do with several bike teams trying to recruit these guys for MTB racing.

greg - 02/05/14 - 2:18am

that’s a whole lotta specialized.
what kind of stand are they using? the one that seems to plug into the right crank bolt…

Kyle - 02/05/14 - 3:14am

Roczen and Dungey didn’t have a pair of KTM bicycles on hand?

Granite - 02/05/14 - 3:52am

Very cool !

Sardinian Rider - 02/05/14 - 4:03am

Specialized smorgasbord.

Ryan Henry - 02/05/14 - 4:38am

Andy Stand. Great concept, pain in the neck to store!

Tony Talentino - 02/05/14 - 8:48am

Where can I purchase a thru-crank stand like they’re using?

howie feltersnatch - 02/05/14 - 11:19am

the last pic is a specialized crosstrail, not an entry level mountain bike…….roadies…

braaaponmtb - 02/05/14 - 11:58am

actually they are called scorpion bike stands. they can be found @ http://www.scorpionbikestands.com Local socal company making some awesome stands for some of the MX legends Johnny O’ and Ricky Carmichael. Check out their product pretty sweet stuff

Its funny that Eli Tomac isn’t riding a Tomac after his dad let the company go under…again.

Post a comment:

Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)

Website

Comment sections can be a beautiful source of knowledge, conversation and comedy. They can also get pretty ugly, which is why we've updated our Comments Policy. If your comment isn't showing up or suddenly disappears, you might want to check it out.